Stories of Life. And Money. On the Fringe.

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About Me. About Random Thoughts.

About.

Sort of feels hopeless all by itself. Or is it hopeful? Depends on your mental prism or how you perceive things through your mind’s eye. I had a dear friend in elementary school who would answer every question with a question. One of those QWAQ (question with a question) responses was:

About?

Hey Tommy, how do you feel?

About? Um.

He made me insane! About? About? Is that a way to answer?

What’s your life about? No really. What are all your experiences, your heartaches, your memories, your trials worth to you. To others? How will you move people forward? Communicate your pain to enlighten others? Are you up for the journey?

The “about” is change because “about,” is a moving target depending on where you are in your life. It’s a culmination of experiences-past & present. The “about,” about you can swell and contract regardless of age. How does it happen initially?

All it takes is a spark…

Years ago I decided I wanted to help people make grander, clearer money decisions. I wanted to cut through the crap, the dogma (and there are piles of crystalized dogma or dog crap or whatever) in the financial services industry.

For years I believed the bullshit. Then I studied history. I studied people.

I began to understand how imperfect everything is. Even perfection.

Example: If you strive to be perfect, well, you’re more flawed than you think and it’s time to adjust your “about.” Call it an “about face.” Striving for perfection burns the energy right out of your soul. Striving to be a great influence is totally different. It’s rewarding, it calms the spirit. People will begin to love your imperfections. You’ll be perfect to them. You’ll improve. Get healthier. Have more sex.

Doesn’t make sense yet? It will.

I sought to be a muse. I wanted to be a source of information, a hub of data, a point of light, a money-sexy play thing for the mind. I wanted badly to be that bright for the media, clients, friends and yes, even to my mentors who shall remain smarter, more perceptive and bigger-than-life. More than I’ll ever be. Starting today. Now. Your mentors should be smarter. Hell, they should be better than you too.

Always work to surround yourself with people much smarter than you. I do. Constantly. And there are a lot of smart, intuitive people around, if you just open your eyes to them. To be clear-you can learn from anyone. Learning from those smarter than you however, expands your mental bandwidth. It pushes you to add more life to your life. And it has nothing to do with age either. Mentors you’ll find come in various sizes, colors, ages.

Hell, some may not even be human.

The light awoke me late in life. After the 2008 financial crisis. The precious house of cards we call “the system,” was ready to fold in on itself. My veil of stupidity lifted. The light of truth dilated my brain. It encouraged me to dig deeper into my “about.” The way I viewed the world changed. I began to dig into the “about,” of lots of things including my business. And what I found I didn’t like. Not one bit.

About? This blog is about us. All who strive to improve. At life, at wealth building & preservation, at the harsh interaction with the one in the mirror who looks like hell. It frustrates me because my hair is never right (but at least my thoughts are clearer).

About? It’s about failure. Getting cut off at the knees. It’s about coming back. It’s about redemption. It’s about love. It’s about money, of course.

My book “Random Thoughts of a Money Muse,” available on Amazon.com (shameless plug) was painful to put together. I bled a lot of my own experiences. I wrote of all that’s wrong about how we handle our financial situations. Have we bought handily into various American dreams that turned out to be built on a rickety structure of credit?

Yes. But there’s hope for the future.

I’ve been in the financial services business well into two decades. I serve my craft up with blatant, raw objectivity. My “about,” is bigger than this but it’s a significant part of who I am.

I’m not perfect. Far from it. I constantly wrestle my demons. On occasion, I accomplish containing them like I would a bunch of wet cats in a slippery bathtub. Yet I promise, you can wrangle the bastards.

Come with me on this blog adventure. Life. Money. On the fringe can be sort of fun. Worthwhile. The key is to hold on. Because once you lose grip of the fringe you may be gone forever. I’ll work to make sure that never happens.

Supremely impressed my friend! Who knew? This creative, thoughtful, thought-provoking, and insanely insightful person worked amongst us? Well, to be honest, I knew there was something unique and very genuine about his passion for people, his work, and his integrity for what most of us strive for in the business of advice. I look forward to reading the blog and your book. Congratulations!

I have loved all of your blogs!!! I wanted to just hug you after reading about your mother. Congratulations on the book. I want a signed copy!!! I’ll send you a check just let me know how much to write it for!! And by the way, Richard Rosso, I love you and think you are and awesome man and adorable!!!!!